Coheed and Cambria "The Afterman" Official Trailer

Farewell Jon Lord

Deep Purple founder member Jon Lord died today.  Thanks for all the great songs mate, we'll miss you.

Mini Rock God

Mr. Moosehead's young 'un Matt plays a stonking cover of Muse on a guiter almost as big as he is!

Using History

"If history is the judge to which we appeal, then it can also find against us. It can highlight our mistakes by reminding us of those who, at other times, faced similar problems but who made different, perhaps better decisions" - Margaret MacMillan, (2009) The Uses And Abuses Of History, London, Profile Books.

"A cockroach in the concrete, courthouse tan and beady eyes
A slouch with fallen arches, purging truths into great lies
A little man with a big eraser, changing history
Procedures that he's programmed to, all he hears and sees
Altering the facts and figures, events and every issue
Make a person disappear, and no one will ever miss you

Rewrites every story, every poem that ever was
Eliminates incompetence, and those who break the laws
Follow the instructions of the New Way's Evil Book of Rules
Replacing rights with wrongs, the files and records in the schools" - Lyrcis to Hook In Mouth by Megadeth, written by Dave Mustaine.

RED FANG - "Wires"

The Petty Officer of Fucking About

""TODAY THE God Of Fuck is merely the Petty Officer Of Fucking About; the Local Ombudsman Of Mildly Irritating Behaviour. He's locked in his suitably grand room at a Park Lane hotel with plenty of absinthe and 'a young lady friend'. A wide-eyed reporter from a London free title eventually comes down the stairs declaring him to be "leathered"; saying that the lanky industro-goth was striding round his room with the girl tossed over his shoulder chatting bare nonsense."

- Journalist John Doran reaches the end of his tether while waiting for Marilyn Manson to turn up for a scheduled interview, 2009.

Hot Rock Chicks - Grog

The strangely monikered Grog from London metal outfit Die So Fluid.  Ooh, more than a hint of Siouxsie Sioux. It's safe to say that I'll be down the front at Hard Rock Hell VI when DSF are on stage.

Hot Rock Chicks - Lzzy Hale

Lzzy Hale of Halestorm.

Spooky Julie's Snuff Tape by Release The Bats

N


NSFW in all sorts of ways.

Last.fm Stats 2011 - Most Listened to Tracks

John Lee Hooker

1 Professor Elemental – Fighting Trousers 39

1 Professor Elemental – Sweet Cold Coalition (feat. Miss Sadie Bell) 39

3 Professor Elemental – Animal Magic 38

4 Datsik – Swagga 37

4 Datsik – Firepower 37

6 Professor Elemental – CUP OF BROWN JOY (Tea Bag remix) 34

7 Professor Elemental – Splendid 33

7 Black Stone Cherry – Blame It On The Boom Boom 33

7 The Bronx Casket Co. – Antihero 33

Linton Kwesi Johnson

10 John Lee Hooker – Boom Boom 32

10 Professor Elemental – Fete Worse Than Death 32

12 Dessa – The Crow 31

12 WTF Vs Dead Pres – It's Bigger than Hip Hop Uk (Full Vocal Clean Mix) 31

14 Mumford & Sons – The Cave 28

14 Therapy? – Bad Excuse For Daylight 28

14 Stacie Collins – Cool 28

14 Professor Elemental – Elixir 28

18 Million Dollar Reload – International Anthem 27

18 Enter Shikari – The Jester 27

18 Dessa – Into the Spin 27

18 Professor Elemental – The Quest For The Golden Frog 27

18 Professor Elemental – Steam Powered (feat. Mr. Jon Clarke) 27

23 The Pierces – Secret 26

23 Million Dollar Reload – Livin' In The City 26

23 Florence + the Machine – Kiss With A Fist 26

23 Stacie Collins – Lend The Devil A Hand 26

23 Professor Elemental – Penny Dreadful 26

28 Bob Dylan – A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall 25

28 Madness – The Prince 25

28 Dessa – Matches to Paper Dolls 25

28 Stacie Collins – Little Things 25

28 Alex Vegas – Muslamic Ray Guns (The EDL Anthem) 25

33 Creedence Clearwater Revival – Bad Moon Rising 24

33 Million Dollar Reload – Goodnight New York 24

33 Unruly Child – Show Me The Money 24

33 Stacie Collins – Don't Doubt Me Now 24

33 Nick Jaina – The President of the Chess Club 24

38 The Clash – The Guns Of Brixton 23

38 Linton Kwesi Johnson – Inglan Is A Bitch 23

38 The Duckworth Lewis Method – Jiggery Pokery 23

38 Dessa – Alibi 23

38 Port Isaac's Fisherman's Friends – Bully In The Alley 23

43 Led Zeppelin – The Battle of Evermore 22

43 The Pierces – Boring 22

43 Manu Chao – 13 Dias 22

43 Black Spiders – KISS Tried To Kill Me 22

43 Stacie Collins – Hey Mister 22

43 Stacie Collins – Tied To You 22

43 Datsik – Hydraulic 22

50 George Thorogood & The Destroyers – Bad To The Bone 21

My most listened to tracks were obviously doninated by the bands that appeared highest on the acts chart, plus a few acts from which I loved one or two songs but wasn't moved much by the rest of their output ; the dubstep artist Datsik and quirky folk musician Nick Jaina fell into this category.

Last.fm Stats 2011 - Most Listened To

Black Stone Cherry

1 Black Stone Cherry 412

2 Professor Elemental 323

3 Christina Aguilera 322

3 BBC Radio 4 322

5 The Unthanks 318
 6 Muse 315

Professor Elemental



6 Dessa 315

8 Stacie Collins 312

9 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 308

10 Rancid 305

11 Coheed and Cambria 295



12 Megadeth 291

Stacie Collins



12 The Pierces 291

14 Metallica 283

15 The Wildhearts 278

16 The Beatles 269

17 Marillion 267

Nneka

18 Lily Allen 266

19 Status Quo 261

20 Mastodon 259

21 Magnum 257

22 Etran Finatawa 256

23 Manu Chao 255

23 Ace Frehley 255

25 Nneka 254

26 Madness 251

27 Marilyn Manson 245

28 Mumford & Sons 242

29 Therapy? 233

29 The Proclaimers 233

29 Million Dollar Reload 233

32 The Decemberists 232

33 Britney Spears 231

33 Antonín Dvořák 231

35 Igor Stravinsky 230

36 Georg Friedrich Händel 226

37 Lee "Scratch" Perry 224

38 Port Isaac's Fisherman's Friends 222

39 Rachel Unthank & The Winterset 221

40 Antonio Vivaldi 215

40 Street Sweeper Social Club 215

42 The Rolling Stones 214

43 The Answer 212

44 Led Zeppelin 207

45 Electric Light Orchestra 204

45 Voodoo Six 204

47 Rush 203

48 Siouxsie and the Banshees 200

49 The Prodigy 197

49 Florence + the Machine 197

That's a reasonably eclectic year for me.  Black Stone Cherry's Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea drove them to the top of my chart, and the endlessly hilarious Professor Elemental got his creator Paul Alborough second spot.

My top ten are well split between old favourites, Christina, Muse, The Unthanks, and listening that was new to me in 2011 like country rocker Stacie Collins, BSC, Professor Elemental's wonderful steampunk chap hop and Dessa's clever and articulate rap.

Further down my charts are well filled with lots of old favourites - try as I might to search out new and weird music I just can't help coming back to the likes of The Wildhearts, Metallica,  Megadeth, Led Zeppelin, Madness or Siouxsie and the Banshees.  New acts that push their way into my most listened of the year included Manu Chao's upbeat Freanch/Spanish/Basque folk pop, Nigeria's pop/rnb singer Nneka, Czech composer Antonín Dvořák and the rock bands Voodoo Six and Million Dollar Reload.

The Blog Isn't Dead...

Image via Wikipedia

...but it came close this time.

I know I've been rather non-existent on the blogging front for nearly a month, a busy period at work, uni work and then our annual holiday all got in the way.  The holiday was wonderful, we spent two weeks in Florida and did all the touristy things including the Universal theme parks, Gatorland, watching the Mars mission being launched and, er, shooting a Glock handgun. Not at anybody you understand.

After Florida we spent a weekend at the UK's premier classic/hard rock festival, Hard Rock Hell, drank slightly too much, got a new tattoo and heard some great, and hugely loud, bands.  Magnum, Black Stone Cherry, Therapy?, Michael Monroe, Voodoo Six, Quireboys, Wolfsbane, Kobra and the Lotus and a host of other bands made it a great weekend.  We have booked our tickets for next year's festival already as they tend to sell out rather early.

I got some rather good news from The Open University yesterday, I passed my foundation module with flying colours and received a Distinction.  I managed seven maximum scores from the eight marking points and a good score on the online multi-choice exam.

Now that I am a quarter of the way through the 60 point module AA100 The Arts Past and Present, I am very glad that I did the foundation module as nearly all the work we did on art, poetry and history is highly relevant to this course as well.  My first essays on this course, on Plutarch's view of the relationship between Antony and Cleopatra, and a critical comparison of the styles of Cezanna and Zurbaran, were both marked as being only a fraction short of Distinction level so I am really pleased with that as well.  The second essay, a re-write and reflective analysis of the Plutarch essay I handed in while on holiday. The next essays are on Michael Faraday, and a critical analysis of some poetry about cats, due in the first week of January 2012

Album Review : Peace Sells Remastered - Megadeth 8*

Image via WikipediaI have made a mistake here, I realised that my vinyl copy of Peace Sells is no longer worth playing, my CD copy has vanished so I thought I would buy a download, and got seduced into buying this remastered version of Megadeth's classic second album.

I only own a handful of remastered albums, and to be honest, they are nearly all worse than the original releases. Marillion's updated Fugazi sounds like the drums were recorded in a telephone box, and on this effort Dave Mustaine has looked back on Peace Sells...But Who's Buying ? and thought to himself that he could make a better job of it, he was wrong.

The thing is, Peace Sells for Megadeth was pretty much a perfect album, it was full of rage and anger and fantastic guitar and drum work, it sounded raw and dangerous and brash and exciting. I think part of the problem with this re-mix is Dave's still not quite resolved problem with being fired from Metallica. In March 1986 Metallica released their finest album, the one that cemented their growing reputation and established both the band and thrash metal firmly at the forefront of popular metal, Master Of Puppets set a template for other bands to follow if they could.  MoP was massive, huge rhythm sections complemented great song writing and the polished, incredibly well rehearsed sound Metallica had achieved pulled their own style of thrash away from its hardcore roots.

In November 1986 Peace Sells was released, and it was a different sort of album.  Megedeth sounded like they walked into the studio drunk and angry, then they pounded out a few tracks in a fit of barely controlled rage. It was that feeling that at any moment Megadeth might go completely out of control that I loved about the band and this album, they always pushed to the very edge of their technical ability. This wasn't Metallica with their endless practise and overdubbing, most of the solos on PS sounds like Dave and Chris Poland just picked up their guitars, let rip at each other and then shouted "Fucking A!" when they'd finished. At any moment on Peace Sells you thought that Mustaine might throw down his guitar, snort a giant line of coke, punch and policeman and set fire to the place (actually, this is more or less what did happen).

So what has happened on this remastering ? Well, some of the vocals sound like they have been reworked, Mustaine's trademark sneering vocal style has been tamed a little, and overall the sound has been cleaned up a little.  This is where the problem lies, Megadeth's second album sounds like music made by men on the edge of sanity, it was an awesome, thrilling musical experience, and this remastered version has trimmed away some of those manic thrills and spills and made the whole thing just a touch too safe and clean.

I still rate this version as 8* as Megadeth have not managed to totally cock up their original sound, but if you are thinking of buying Peace Sells, then search out the original version, it's a solid 10* album on which Mustaine and company threw everything they possessed wholeheartedly into the music and created a quite awesome technical metal sound.

Bill Bailey's message to Metallica

Black Stone Cherry - White Trash Millionaire

Sahg - Pyromancer

Therapy? - Screamager